LOS ANGELES — Mass murderer Charles Manson is in a Bakersfield hospital, though the severity of his condition is unclear, it was reported Wednesday.

Kern County Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Smallwood confirms that Manson is at a local hospital but could not say more, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Vicky Waters, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, declined to comment, citing federal and state medical privacy laws. But she did confirm that Manson is alive.

In January, Manson, 83, was rushed to Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield for what authorities at the time would describe only as a serious medical problem.

Charles Manson, leader of a hippie cult, stares at the floor, Oct. 6, 1970, as he is led to the Los Angeles court room from which he was ousted the day before after lunging at Judge Charles H. Older with a sharpened pencil clutched in his hand. Manson and three women followers involved in the case will be listening to the proceedings in an adjoining room because of their behavior. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)

** FILE ** In this 1986 file photo, Convicted killer Charles Manson is seen during a parole hearing in California. In February, 2008, a team of forensic researchers visited the Death Valley ranch where Manson hid after a killing spree in the summer of 1969 and found at least two sites that could be clandestine graves holding the bodies of additional victims. Forensic tests of the soil produced mixed results so Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze said he will allow a limited four-day excavation at the ranch beginning May 20, 2008. (AP Photo/File)

Charles Manson wears a completely new outfit of jacket, shirt, kerchief, slacks and shoes as he arrives in the Los Angeles Hall of Justice to listen to defense arguments in his trial for murder in the deaths of Sharon Tate and six others, Dec. 29, 1970. Because of past outbursts, Manson and three women defendants are listening to proceedings via an amplification system in a room adjoining the courtroom. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)

Charles Manson, clean shaven and with a swastika scratched on his forehead, walks to court, March 12, 1971 in Los Angeles. Last week, Manson showed up with his long hair closely trimmed. Manson and three girl co-defendants have been convicted of murder in the deaths of actress Sharon Tate and six others. The jury currently is hearing testimony in the penalty phase of the trial. (AP Photo)

A scowling Charles Manson goes to lunch after an outbreak in court that resulted in his ejection, along with three women co-defendants, from the Tate murder trial, Dec. 21, 1970. The outburst started after Leslie Van Houten said she wanted to fire her new lawyer, a replacement for missing Ronald Hughes, and hire a woman attorney. Before she was ejected to an adjoining room with the others, Ms. Van Houten slapped a bailiff and told the judge “I’d strike you if I could.” (AP Photo/George Brich)

Charles M. Manson, squinting in the glare of a film cameraman’s floodlight, marches to court, Aug. 20, 1970, for a hearing on his claim he is being mistreated by deputies in the Los Angeles County Jail. After the hearing his trial on murder charges resulting from the slayings of actress Sharon Tate and six others was scheduled to resume. (AP Photo/George Brich)

Charles Manson replies “It all depends on your point of view,” after a newsman asked him “Are you insane, Charlie?”, March 19, 1970 in Los Angeles. The exchange came as Manson left court where he won permission to hire a new attorney, replacing one who had sought to have Manson examined by psychiatrists. (AP Photo/George Brich)

Charles Manson, head of the cultic “Manson Family,” is escorted by deputy sheriffs on his way to court, in Los Angeles, Calif., on August 20, 1970. He is charged with murder-conspiracy in the Tate-LaBianca slayings. (AP Photo)

Charles Manson is escorted to court for formal sentencing in Los Angeles, Ca., on April 19, 1971. He is convicted with three women followers of murder-conspiracy in the slayings of actress Sharon Tate and six others. (AP Photo)

Convicted murderer Charles Manson is shown during an interview with television talk show host Tom Snyder in a medical facility in Vacaville, Ca. on June 10, 1981. (AP Photo)

Charles Manson is returned to jail after being formally sentenced to death, April 19, 1971. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)

Charles M. Manson, 35-year-old bearded leader of a communal clan he calls “the family” is shown as he arrived in Los Angeles, Dec. 10, 1969, to be jailed on murder-conspiracy charges in the deaths of actress Sharon Tate and six others. His arraignment is scheduled for Thursday. Three women indicted with him by a Los Angeles County grand jury Monday will appear for arraignment. (AP Photo/Harold P. Matosian)

Charles Manson is pictured en route to the courtroom after being told the jury had decided on his punishment for the Sharon Tate murders in Los Angeles, Ca., on April 19, 1971. Manson began making derogatory remarks as soon as he entered the courtroom and was taken to another room before the jury sentenced him and three women co-defendents to death in the gas chamber. (AP Photo)

Charles Manson is pictured en route to a Los Angeles courtroom on Dec. 17, 1970. He is being arraigned on charges of murder in the disappearance of Donald J. “Shorty” Shea, who vanished about the time of the Sharon Tate murders, for which Manson is on trial. (AP Photo)

Charles Manson is escorted by officers while enroute to court in Independence, Calif., in this Dec. 3, 1970 photo. Manson and three women codefendents were convicted and sentenced to death after the 10-month trial that involved the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in the hills near Hollywood, Calif. Their sentences were later commuted to life when the death penalty was briefly outlawed. (AP Photo)

Charles Manson walks into the courtroom in Santa Monica, Ca. on Oct. 13, 1970. Manson and Susan Atkins, seated, a member of his family of followers, are to plead on charges of murdering a Malibu musician, Gary Hinman. When his name was called, Manson stood, folded his arms, and turned his back on the judge. Atkins did the same. The court then entered pleas of innocent. Both are on trial in Los Angeles for killings that included actress Sharon Tate. (AP Photo)

Unsuccessful in his attempts to obtain a mistrial, Charles Manson heads for court in Los Angeles on Aug. 6, 1970 to listen to further cross-examination of the state’s star witness, Linda Kasabian, in his trial for murder in the slayings of actress Sharon Tate and six others. (AP Photo)

Charles M. Manson, charged in the killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others, walks to courtroom in Los Angeles, Feb. 10, 1970, where his trial date was set for March 30. Manson is wearing sandals, gold velvet trousers, a white Edwardian shirt with billowing sleeves and a multi-colored vest. The same trial date was set for Linda Kasabian and Leslie Van Houten, two female co-defendants. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)

Cult leader Charles Manson looks back and smiles as his attorney, public defender Fred Schaefer, talks to him in Independence, Calif., on Dec. 4, 1969. Manson and his followers are charged with eight murders. (AP Photo)

Dr. Mike Karch takes a photo of an abandoned miner’s truck that has Helter Skelter written on the back of it behind the Barker Ranch house, Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 in the Panamint Mountains west of Death Valley National Park, Calif. Charles Manson and his followers retreated to the Barker Ranch after a killing spree during the summer of 1969. The high desert wasteland outside of town hides the ranch where a paranoid Charles Manson and his followers holed up after their orgy of murder nearly four decades ago. Now, as then, few venture into this alkaline wilderness _ gold-diggers, outlaws, loners content to live and let live. But a determined group of outsiders recently made the trek. They were in search of more evidence of death. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)

Debra Tate, sister of murder victim Sharon Tate waits for scientists and investigators to begin working behind the abandoned Barker Ranch house, Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 in the Panamint Mountains west of Death Valley National Park, Calif. Charles Manson and his followers retreated to the Barker Ranch after a killing spree during the summer of 1969. The high desert wasteland outside of town hides the ranch where a paranoid Charles Manson and his followers holed up after their orgy of murder nearly four decades ago. Now, as then, few venture into this alkaline wilderness _ gold-diggers, outlaws, loners content to live and let live. But a determined group of outsiders recently made the trek. They were in search of more evidence of death. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)

** FILE ** A Life magazine with Charles Manson on the cover is left on a the kitchen table in the abandoned Barker Ranch house, in this Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 file photo in the Panamint Mountains west of Death Valley National Park, Calif. Manson and his followers retreated to the Barker Ranch after a killing spree during the summer of 1969. Further forensic tests of the soil at the remote ranch where Charles Manson once lived were ordered Friday, March 28, 2008 before a decision is made on whether to dig for more possible victims of the convicted killer. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)

The body of actress Sharon Tate is taken from her rented house on Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, Ca., on Aug. 9, 1969. Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and four other persons were found murdered by American cult-leader Charles Manson and his followers. Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, was born in 1943. (AP Photo)

Manson and members of his “family” of followers were convicted of killing actress Sharon Tate and six other people during a bloody rampage in the Los Angeles area in August 1969. Prosecutors said Manson and his followers were trying to incite a race war he dubbed “Helter Skelter,” taken from the Beatles song of the same name.

Manson was initially sentenced to death. But a 1972 ruling by the California Supreme Court found the state’s death penalty law at the time unconstitutional, and his sentence was changed to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He has been denied parole 12 times.

Over four decades of incarceration, Manson has been cited for assault, repeated possession of a weapon, threatening staff and possessing a cellphone.

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